The Libyan Question

I was really concerned that the international community would simply stand by and watch as Libyans were slaughtered by their own military forces. Think Rwanda and Burundi and those awful type of events and outcomes all over again. The US and the international community stood by as human beings were exterminated. If you need background on that I recommend the PBS video – Ghosts of Rwanda – as definitive coverage.

This is always a problem when an armed force decides to slaughter or exterminate a civilian population. Should “we” get involved or should we step back and let the local conflict be decided by local forces? The German attempt to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe was accompanied by territorial encroachment and domination of neighboring European countries and was confronted, but the truth is that the international community was very slow to come to the aid of the groups that were identified for extermination. It wasn’t just Jewish folks, the Romas, gays, communists, and more were targeted for their ethnicity, their politics, their orientation to the mainstream culture.

Jump forward to the Cambodian holocaust. The international community sits on its hands. Jump forward to Rwanda, Burundi, the Congo. No effective action. Look at the Sudan.

Yet we (the UN, the US et al) intervene in Bosnia and I am not sure why. I read and listen to Andrei Grubacic and I am not sure the intervention really worked to further goals that I have about the elevation of persuasion over coercion.

So, here we go. I felt we should intervene when the rebels in Libya were in danger of being crushed and exterminated. But once Western forces start bombing the country I am very uneasy. Can this work out well? Is there an end in sight? Are we there because Libya has sweet oil?

Want to hear Grubacic? You got it. Anarchism and Marxism, Part I.